Friday, December 30, 2011

Brian Sanders: "a professional artist for five decades"

Guest author Bryn Havord, following his overview of English illustrator Brian Sanders’ work produced in the 1960s, which we featured in April, continues with samples of Brian’s illustrations made during the 1970s and ’80s.

Brian has now been a professional artist for five decades during which time he has worked in every area of the illustrative arts ranging through: book publishing, magazines, advertising, government agencies, film, television and art education. He is one of the founders of the British Association of Illustrators.

Below: HRH Prince Charles for Woman’s Own

Below: Serial opening for Woman magazine.

Above and below: two more opening spreads for Woman’s Own serials.

Three paintings from Man and the Automobile published in France as L’Homme et L’Automobile. All three were painted in acrylics.

Taxis of the Marne. General Galieni requisitioned the Renault taxis of Paris to take troops to the front in 1914.

The Auburn

Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

Below, illustration for the first part of a serial for Woman magazine...

... and the final part of the same serial. It was rare for a complete serial to be in full colour throughout.

Two of four watercolours for a Readers Digest article about the British government’s cabinet war rooms. The brief was to construct a scene to include the war cabinet. Left to right are: Brendan Bracken, Lord Beaverbrook, Ernest Bevan, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee.

Below: Winston Churchill

Escape from Arnhem for The Sunday Times. The Dutch Resistance hid the survivors of the Arnhem parachute drop and battle, dressing them in civilian clothes, hiding their uniforms and weapons. One night they were all brought together, and re-kitted before escaping across the Neder Rhine. Art director Michael Rand’s brief was: “imagine the fear of being caught by the enemy with your pants down”.

Another illustration for Readers Digest - this time for their special books series. There were four other watercolours made for this story.

Cry God for Harry and St George - The Battle of Agincourt, watercolour for Men Only.

Article on duelling for Men Only. Brian visited London’s Hampstead Heath at dawn for the scene described by the author. As the mist cleared he saw a hawk swoop and take a pigeon.

Noel Coward for Nova, the magazine most illustrators wished to work for. One of twenty illustrations showing famous peoples’ foibles.

Coward ostentatiously left invitations on his mantelpiece marked either “accept” or “decline”. When Brian’s agent delivered the drawings, the then young art director David Hillman said: “some of these oldies can still turn it on.”

Brian was thirty-two.

At 73 years-of-age Brian still works as hard as he did back in the 1970s and ’80s. It’s always a pleasure to visit him and his wife Lizzie, also an illustrator; I still find their work as exciting as I did all those years ago.

* Brian was very pleased with the responses he received after his first blog was kindly published by Leif Peng back in April. His e-mail address is briansanders[dot]art[at]googlemail[dot]com

* If you'd like to read all of Bryn Havord's posts about Brian, including many more examples of his earlier artwork, they have just been collected as one continuous story on a new blog, The Art of Brian Sanders